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Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Spain arrests nine people over 'links to Brussels terror attacks'

Spanish police have arrested nine people accused of belonging to Islamic State and having links to the Brussels terror attacks.

Eight Moroccans and one Spaniard living in Catalonia were detained in a series of 12 raids in five towns, including Barcelona.

The men were aged between 30 and 40 years old and most had previous criminal records for drug trafficking.

The arrests followed an eight-month investigation by Spanish officers, working with their Belgian counterparts.

Four of the detainees are suspected of having links to people arrested in connection with the Brussels attacks.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the atrocities at Brussels airport and on a train on the city's subway that killed 32 people and wounded 300 more.

The assaults in March 2016 are thought to have been carried out by some of the same individuals responsible for the Paris attacks the previous November.

Documents, computers and memory drives were seized in the raids as well as at least three guns and drugs including marijuana.

Moroccan police are now searching several properties with connections to the men.

Police said they started tracking the gang as a result of a tip from a member of the public reportedly concerned about drug trafficking.

Spain raised its national security alert to one level below the maximum in 2015 and has arrested around 200 suspected jihadists since then.

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